


Broken Glass

by orphan_account



Category: Free!
Genre: M/M, Oneshot, WOO, hurt/comfort works better, im bad at tagging, its angst, its my first free! fanfic, sort of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-18
Updated: 2014-07-18
Packaged: 2018-02-09 11:21:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1981023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes people hurt the ones they care most about, but they still find ways to be forgiven.</p><p>Or the story of how Ai's boyfriend is a angsty teenager who shouldn't be forgiven, but he loves him to much to let him slip away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Glass

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is my first fanfic for Free! and it's kind of hurt/comfort. I wrote it late last night/early this morning, so there might be small grammatical errors. Yay for being your own editor. Also watch out for swears if those aren't your thing.

_“I think we should take a break.”_

Rin wasn’t the most talkative roommate at first. He was grumpy and didn’t talk too much, but Ai still adored him. He listened to him ramble on every now and then, and would reply to him when he felt it most necessary. Ai was happy enough with that, because Rin didn’t seem to hate him and he was such an amazing swimmer. There had to be good parts of him, too, parts that were just as amazing as his time.

_“What? Why? What did I do to you?”_

When Rin started to initiate their late night conversations, and when he would greet Ai in the hallways occasionally, Ai was ecstatic. Ai would listen as well as he could, and sometimes the other teen would listen to him when he wanted to talk about his own stress. Rin’s issues were worse and they both knew it, but Ai had his problems, too. The older boy wasn’t mean enough to dismiss them, because he was looked up to so much by the younger and his kindness was taken into great consideration, so really, it was only morally right.

_“You don’t care enough about me.”_

When Rin started to smile at Ai when he offered to help him with extra training or offer to go run with him, Ai was hooked. When they spent hours talking and laughing together almost every night, he was done for. In love as deeply as a human could be, even if the teenager he was in love with had sharp teeth that said nasty things sometimes and he liked to get upset about small things. His hugs were amazing and his smile was so cute, so it was worth it. Ai found his amazing parts, and although separated they were small, they made Rin into the most amazing person when they all came together.

_“Ai, no, you’re my entire world! How could you not think I care about you?”_

When the Iwatobi boys started to hang out with Rin again, Ai innocently thought that it would be a great thing. It was good for Rin to get out of their dorm sometimes, and even though that left Ai with nothing to do, it didn't matter. He wasn't selfish. After all, Rin had taken him out on an unofficial but somehow still official date and they sometimes laid together in bed at night, so it was obvious that Ai was on a higher pedestal. But, no matter how high of a pedestal you sit on, the spotlight can always be shined somewhere else. “You don’t! All you care about is swimming and your stupid friends!” When Rin started to spend their day that was meant to be dedicated to watching movies together with the boys who went to Iwatobi, Ai understood. He thought that it was just because he missed them so much and needed a lot of time to catch up with them. But when it was every week of every month, Ai couldn’t help but crumble a little bit. Rin would fill him with excuses, but each one only dragged him further out of his denial. Rin hardly even paused to smile at him like he had been starting to.

_“They make me happy, Ai!”_

_“And I don’t?!”_

Sometimes silence was the hardest thing to hold on his shoulders. Rin could hardly bear it, but he had caused it. It was his fault, after all. The fact of this all weighed his heart down and he wanted to get on his knees and beg his Ai, his loving boyfriend, to not go.

“You don’t give a shit about me, Rin. You never have! You just wanted someone to listen to and you didn’t care about anything I said! I sat there and talked with you for hours, told you all my secrets and let you help me study and you didn't ever care about any of it! I was there every moment they weren't, and that meant nothing to you!” Ai had never been louder and his words had never sounded so painfully raw and honest.

When people were sobbing and nearly heartbroken, that’s how they tended to be. “Ai, please-”

“Don’t call me Ai.”

“No! I care about you so much, and it h- urts,” his voice caught on the word, “It hurts so fucking much to think that I hurt you. I’m a terrible person and I know it, but Ai… I love you so much and I need you.”

Rin had moved from the door to their room to Ai, bringing his hands up to touch his face and then holding him tightly before finally ending up on his knees and sobbing grossly. Ai had never been more disgusted, but it was laced with a love so deep he could feel it in his fingertips.

“You don’t deserve to be forgiven.”

“I know.”

Ai knew that he hadn’t done anything like cheating and he did still hold him at night when he was there, but he did forget about him any time the Iwatobi boys were mentioned. And that almost seemed worse than anything else, because he was being forgotten and left behind for some guys that hadn't even bothered to talk with him for months. 

“You’ve got a week to do a lot of apologizing.”

Ai shouldn’t have forgiven him, but he was so in love and it would feel twice as painful. Leaving Rin was both nearly impossible because they were roommates and really going to the office and requesting a new dorm and then waiting would be way too hard to handle, and it just sounded so wrong to not be with him that he couldn’t let it be.

“I’m so thankful.”

Rin managed to get back up and wrap himself around Ai and it took a little while, but he hugged him back and let his own breathing become uneven. It was a long time before Ai decided he had enough and he pulled away, going to lay down and Rin followed him like some kind of injured animal. Definitely not a shark. Sharks were supposed to be mean until they died. He let the other wrap his arms around him and curl into him from behind, but he didn't want to hear his boyfriend sniffle or see his nasty, tear stained face. It both hurt and made him angry to think about either, so he was happy when silence was the only thing that came next. 

Rin would end up drowning them both, Ai decided. With his bad periods of nasty words and terrible behaviors, but the periods that cuddling and talking about it would fix immediately, they would drown together. Their love wasn’t toxic, but it was filled with many holes and stuck in an ocean. No matter how they tried to cover the holes and say it was okay, they would sink. And then Ai could only swim for so long, and after that, Rin would cling to him like he was now, and they would drown together.

Ai was okay with that.


End file.
